Eagle Congratulation Letters; Spinoff

[skeptic 992]

In August, we will be having an Eagle ceremony in our troop. As we were leaving for camp, the young man's mother told me about "her" letter requests. Apparently, she sent letters to everyone on the relatively long list gleaned from the web. She capped that with, "I even sent one to the Pope". Now, that is great, but they are Baptist.

 

Am I the only one who often wonders how much these letters mean to the young man himself? In this case, at least at the moment, he could care less if he even has a ceremony.

 

While it is great to have these things, would not a few from truly meaningful individuals be more appropriate? It simply seems to me that too much is made of obtaining form letters, for the most part, from important (?)or distinguished people and organizations.

 

What think others here?

[desertrat77 1144]

Skeptic, I think a couple meaningful congrats letters are fine. But the trend these days is to generate a huge pile of letters from any person or agency that is inclined to send one to the new Eagle.

 

Volume, volume, volume. And at the risk of being impolite, it's just plain tacky to ask for an Eagle congrats letter from someone or someplace that the Eagle has no connection with.

 

There's a line between recognizing the new Eagle for a job well done, and a coronation. Many Eagle ceremonies these days are coronations. In truth, the Eagle still has a full life ahead of him and plenty of opportunities to be recognized for outstanding accomplishments. Eagle is the beginning of the journey of life, not the end.

 

As a career military guy, I've seen promotion ceremonies for senior ranking officers and enlisted that are far more subdued than Eagle ceremonies I've been to. A few good words, pin on the new rank, a round of applause, a word from the promotee, and please join us for some cake in the back of the room. And then get back to work.

 

The letters: if the Eagle is thinking of joining the Marines, then a USMC congrats letter is in order. But if he has no military inclination, but his dear mom is pushing for congrats letters from all five branches of the military, then it's a bit much.

 

The most meaningful Eagle ceremonies I've been to are the ones that were at the end of a normal troop court of honor. Sure, a little more pomp and circumstance, but just the right amount. Means alot to the Tenderfoot scout and his mom and dad to see it. Ties it in to the troop too, because we know no Eagle earns the rank alone.

[BadenP 93]

Yea, I agree the only letters an Eagle should receive are those that mean something to him, family, friends, teachers, employers,etc. While achieving the Eagle is a great accomplishment the boy was not elected president for pete sake, and asking foreign dignitaries and other high ranking people is just going a little over the top. Most of the letters received from politicians for example are done by an office staff person and signed with an automatic signature machine, now how personal is that, lol.

[sheldonsmom 10]

Along the same lines.....

My Eagle son received many letters but our personal favorite was the one from the Department of Justice. The envelope was addressed to Eagle Scout son but the card inside was "congratulations on earning the Gold Award. You are a young lady of accomplishment."

[John-in-KC 311]

EagleSon's favorites are three:

 

Our State Senator did a "Courtesy Resolution", printed and framed by the Missouri State Printer. Since our senator is an Eagle Scout and a Scouter himself, that means something.

 

Our State Representative did the same thing.

 

Our Congresscritter is also an Eagle Scout, and an active Scouter. He did a floor speech in the House. Told the youth (there were 6) when he was going to be on C-SPAN, and they all got to see it.

[BadenP 93]

John

Sounds like your congressman was looking for a good PR spot which the kids gave him, anyhow did your son even know who these politicians were? I bet you were more impressed by the letters than he was.

[John-in-KC 311]

BadenP,

 

EagleSon, in HS, was a member of Teenage Republicans. He knew quite well who his Representative was, and in fact, worked on his re-election.

 

The next summer, he spent a week at Scout Camp with his state Senator.

 

The others knew the Congresscritter as well.

 

Ya gotta understand: Scouting is part of who people are in western Missouri. Ike Skelton may be a Democrat, and Sam Graves may be a Republican. They are both Eagle Scouts and both Tribesmen of Mic-o-Say. They go to Scout Camp, not to do a grip, grin and run, but to touch base in their roots.

[OldGreyEagle 5]

For my son's Eagle Court of Honor I got letters from all the living presidents at the time, Ford, Carter, Bush 41 and 43 and Clinton. Reagan was alive at the time, but in late stages and I just couldnt bring myself to ask for one. Did he know who these guys were? Probably not, but when he has kids and shows them the Eagle Book with the letters, then these names he doesnt care about now will have significance. We are in the business of creating memories

[CA_Scouter 11]

I had one Eagle Dad write everyone he could find and I just couldn't see the point. The kid was an early eagle (14) and he was soliciting letters from the Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Pope, Bozo the Clown (who knows??), etc... the kid I'm sure had no clue about these.

 

I took a different route with my Eagle. I wrote the Guvinator, a couple of local politictions, National Park service ( we spend a lot of time in the parks ), some of his favorite bands ( no responses unfortunately ), Justice Souter ( cause he's an Eagle ) and Mike Rowe ( same ).

 

The best one though was from a friend of mine who is in the Oklahoma State Legislature. He sent us a declaratation he made in OK for us, totally unsolicated and a great surprise. Now THAT had a lot of meaning.

 

 

[BadenP 93]

OGE

Memories for who, you or your son? It sounds to me you were trying to fulfill your own desires over those of your son, did you ever ask him who are some of the people that he truly admires and looks up to and try to get letters from them? I would guess not. So now your son has a collection of letters that political memorabilia collectors might covet but had little to no influence in his life. Guess he could always auction them off on e-bay.

 

If we are in the business of memory making we need to put the youth's desires ahead of our own. Same thing is true in running a troop.

[OldGreyEagle 5]

How prescient are you?

 

He wanted a letter from Norman Schwartzkopf and we got one

 

Must every post be an attack?

[BadenP 93]

It was not intended as an attack OGE just a query, I am sorry you took it that way but it just shows how overly involved some parents can become in the Eagle process instead of letting the young man call the shots relying on his own leadership skills and resources, again an observation not an attack.

[prairie 10]

Looks to me like some are just trolling for loot, but what do I know, I stalled out at Star.

[Mrw1 10]

My guys both got all the letters from all the various places on the lists. The proclamations from the Ohio House and the Mayor were quuite nice. Our favorite though, was the postcard the older one got from the CIA telling him they were too busy to send a letter.

[eagle1977 10]

Perhaps we could look at this from another angle. I am the youngest of five boys in my family and the only one that attained Eagle Scout. My father was an active Scouter for most of his life. While my earning Eagle was my accomplishment and the letters and declarations I received from our state representative were rightfully meant for me; maybe, just maybe, they were also a recognition of the example my father set for me and the mentoring he provided to help me achieve my goal. Life and Scouting is a shared journey.